Lexical semantics and diachronic morphology: The development of -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English (Linguistische Arbeiten)

This book is the most comprehensive study to date of the development of the three suffixes -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English. An in depth investigation from Old English to Modern English based on data from annotated corpora reveals that all three suffixes developed from nouns into today's suffixes building abstract nouns. It is shown that the rise of suffixes is triggered by semantic change. The findings are analysed in a current model of lexical semantics of word formation (Lieber 2004). The book includes an index with all formations with the three suffixes from Old English to Modern English. Frontmatter ......Page 2 Table of Contents......Page 6 List of Tables......Page 8 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms......Page 11 1. Introduction......Page 12 2. The development of suffixes......Page 17 3. Frequency, productivity and creativity......Page 38 4. The data......Page 50 5. -hood, -dom and -ship as rivals in word formation processes......Page 176 6. A lexical-semantic analysis of word-formations with -hood, -dom and -ship......Page 211 7. Theoretical consequences of morphological change......Page 244 8. Conclusion......Page 256 Bibliography ......Page 258 Appendix ......Page 266 Index of Word-Formation with -hood, -dom, -ship and -red(en) ......Page 268 General Index ......Page 277 This book is the most comprehensive study to date of the development of the three suffixes -hood, -dom and -ship in the history of English. Based on data from annotated corpora it provides an in depth investigation from Old English to Modern English and shows that structurally the three suffixes developed from syntactic heads (nouns) via morphological heads in compounds to morphological heads in derivations. Being an instance of morphologisation the rise of suffixes clearly shows that word formation is not part of the syntactic module. This development is triggered by semantic change, more pre The book series Linguistische Arbeiten (LA) publishes high-quality work in linguistics that addresses current issues in synchrony and diachrony, theoretically or empirically oriented. Carola Trips. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 247-254) And Index.